RUSSIA/ FRANCE:He helped to end the Cold War and won a Nobel Peace Prize, but only now has Mikhail Gorbachev achieved the ultimate ambition of modern man: he is the star of the new Louis Vuitton campaign.
Following in the footsteps of Scarlett Johansson and Uma Thurman, he has been photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Vuitton's autumn/ winter campaign.
Although there have been no tales, exaggerated or otherwise, of Queen Elizabeth-like disagreements with Leibovitz, Gorbachev is not looking particularly at ease in the photo.
Instead, he gazes out of his limo at the Berlin Wall, perhaps watching his legacy whoosh past and possibly thinking back to the mockery he attracted when he starred in an advert for Pizza Hut a decade ago.
Vogue's website claims Louis Vuitton's donation to Gorbachev's environment charity, Green Cross International, persuaded him to return to the world of advertising.
Whether he'll increase sales as much as Johansson and Thurman reportedly did, well, a man can but try.